


Things Unsaid

by canardroublard



Series: Fictober 2018 [11]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Angst, Betrayal, Gen, Missing Scene, and also, come suffer with me, this is not a happy fic, with a side of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-02 05:03:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16298654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canardroublard/pseuds/canardroublard
Summary: Forgetting was a luxury. Gaby hadn't realized this until she met her father again, and saw just how muchforgettinghe'd allowed himself. But she couldn't deal with him now.They could talk more later.





	Things Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fictober 2018, for the prompt "But I will never forget".

"But I will never forget," Gaby said.

"Gaby, I never..." her father began, but Gaby couldn't bear to hear another word about how he'd forgotten how much she looked like her mother.

How he'd forgotten _her_.

"Enough," she interrupted him, turning away to watch the sun shimmering on the sea.

Facing him again, she found him staring, mouth wrestling unsuccessfully with words. The harsh light outlined every wrinkle near his eyes, on his forehead, around that useless, limp mouth.

"It wasn't..." he tried again. "They told me you were dead. Both of you."

"And you _believed_ them?"

"I was a prisoner of war. What choice did I have?" he asked.

"You weren't a prisoner for _eighteen years_ ," she pointed out.

"Well, ah, no..."

Unable to comprehend the sheer impotence of this man, Gaby just glared at him. He looked away. She remembered, once more, how evasive Waverly had been about her father's life in America, for the past two years. Previously she'd assumed it was part of some intelligence squabble above her clearance. But now she suspected that Waverly feared if she'd known just how comfortable her father had been, she may have been much less willing to chance seeing him again. Good instinct, on Waverly's part.

Gaby thought to Solo's description of her father's life; great job, pleasant house in the suburbs, living the American dream. Not a man who raised hell for bureaucrats, seeking his lost family. Not a man riddled with guilt. Gaby thought to her last eighteen years; watching her mother get sick after the war, foster care, survival. Wondering, as a kid, whether he'd ever find her again. And telling herself, as a teen, to stop being so foolish. Trying to make herself forget him. Never really succeeding.

And there he stood. The man she'd never managed to forget. He squirmed under her gaze, as if only now hearing the weakness of his self-soothing excuses, and he'd never imagined he'd have to defend himself to her.

No, only one of them has done any forgetting, and it was _not_ her.

Throwing her hands into the air, Gaby stalked back towards him. "Did you even think of me?"

"Of course I—"

"Or did you just replace me with a fucking _dog?"_ At the shock on her father's face, Gaby snorted, harsh. "Yeah, I heard about Schnitzel. What a goddamn _stupid_ name for a dog."

Her father looked away, his hand cupping the back of his neck. "Gaby, I—"

"Not now," she cut him off. "They're coming back." She heard footsteps coming towards them, the Vinciguerras returning to the rooftop. Gaby cut off another attempt of her father to speak. "Pretend that went well," she ordered, walking away from him.

"Gaby, please, there's so much I want to tell—"

"Not _now_ ," she hissed. "You must appear to co-operate," she started to explain, outlining her plan. He trailed after her. She didn't look at him.

If he wanted to say anything to her, he could do it later.

**Author's Note:**

> So, apparently I have very little chill about Gaby's father. I'm okay with this realization.


End file.
